How This Social Entrepreneur Is Using Hip-Hop and Food To Inspire Youth

For anyone not familiar with hip-hop culture, the term “rap beef” usually has nothing to do with actual beef. Instead, it refers to a rivalry between rappers, typically resolved with a battle of wits and lyrics. But hip-hop is a genre full of double entendre, and one innovative social entrepreneur has found the way to make “rap beef” literal. Yo Stay Hungry, “the culinary food competition bridging food, beverage, and hip-hop,” is the brainchild of Syreeta Gates, a lifelong hip-hop enthusiast and foodie.

The premise is simple: youth are paired with professional chef mentors who support them as they prepare meals quoted in rap lyrics. The menu has included “T-bone steak, cheese eggs, and Welch’s grape” and “macaroni with cheese…spaghetti, fettucine, and veal,”—quotes from famed New York rapper Notorious B.I.G.’s “Big Poppa” and “All About the Benjamins” respectively. Attendees get their fill of curated music, exciting kitchen showdowns, and delicious food.

Since Gates founded Yo Stay Hungry in 2015, they’ve hosted more than 8 competitions, served more than 3,500 attendees, featured more than 60 judges from the music and culinary arts industries, and awarded two competitors with the “Chef Curry with the Pot” scholarship—an award named in memory of one of Gates’ late friends, Terrell Curry and a clever reference to a Drake lyric.

While her business is just four years old, Gates has been combining food and entrepreneurship since her days of selling popcorn and baked goods to her elementary and high school classmates. It made sense for a young girl who spent her after school hours glued to the Food Network and recreating Emeril Lagasse recipes with her mom’s help. She even noted in her yearbook that she wanted a career as a chef. But that dream did not come true, and Gates passed on the massive expense of culinary school.

Still, Gates eventually found her way back to food. A natural innovator, she found herself toying with the idea of creating something around art, hip-hop and food. She took to Google to find out if anyone had began creating in that space, and when she found that nobody had, she decided she would fill the gap herself.

“I was working at a school, and they had a culinary arts department. I was like, ‘Imagine we did a competition where I partnered young people with coach chefs and had a panel of judges and they made the lyrics,” Gates recalled.

Mack Wilds in the kitchen at #BiggieDay 2018

Photo credit: ShoShots

But while the idea for the competition struck like lightning, turning into a reality was no easy task. Like most start-ups, Gates struggled at first with securing funding and resources and developing her knowledge base and team. The answer to all those problems were in the three pieces of advice she offers to other young women who want to create businesses of their own: do your research, reach out to people in the industry, and just do the work.

“I had never done a culinary competition before, but I was like, ‘Alright, I’m just going to put pen to paper, I’m going to invite some people, I’m going to holla at some chefs—maybe they have contacts around what a competition could look like—and we’re just going to do it.’ I wasn’t attached to it looking perfect. I was just attached to doing the thing.”

Gates’ formula worked, and not only has Yo Stay Hungry taken off, but she has been able to build valuable mentor relationships with many of those people she reached out to in the early stages. They have extended support, advice, and opportunities like taking Yo Stay Hungry to the Taste Talk Awards, which Gates calls the “Grammys of the food industry.” In addition to her real-world mentors, Gates has also learned from her virtual mentors, people like Diddy, Jay-Z, Ava Duvernay, and Chaka Pilgrim. Recognizing the important role these relationships have played in her life, Gates has built mentorship into the program itself by ensuring youth who participate are directly exposed to professionals in the music and culinary industries. This kind of exposure, she noted, is essential for showing youth just how far they can reach.

“We have had young people who, in their participation in the competition, have decided they want to become chefs, so they have direct access to chefs, and many of our young people have become interns with the chefs they were rocking with,” Gates said. “We have had young people perform and they meet music industry professionals who say, ‘Send a track.’ So, we’ve had mentorship curated through the whole relationship. It’s literally ingrained in our business model.”

Our award recipient for the Chef Curry Scholarship

Photo credit: ShoShots

Gates is proud to say that Yo Stay Hungry has been life-changing for some of the participants. She shared the story of one young woman who participated in the first culinary competition in the first year, won the Chef Curry scholarship in the third year, and returned last year as a coach. Thanks to her time with Yo Stay Hungry, she’s followed her passion for cooking to culinary school. “That’s the work,” Gates remarked. “She will never forget these moments.”

True to her innovative nature, Gates is ever on the lookout for new ways to grow. Yo Stay Hungry is just one of the brands under the umbrella of her parent company, The Gates Preserve, which will also be releasing a full-length documentary, “Shaping the Culture,” on hip-hop writers and journalists. And she’s just getting started.

“I’m always asking what’s missing. I’m not out here claiming I’m changing the game. But I’m creating a new lane. Jay-Z has a line that says, ‘Don’t go with the flow. Be the flow.’ So, in hip-hop, I’m just trying to be the flow. That’s it.”

Pauleanna Reid is the Co-Founder of New Girl on the Block, a mentorship platform for millennials. Follow her journey and continue the conversation on Twitter.